Halo: The Victory of Reach
by bldude
Summary: The Covenant have found Reach, and it turns into the hardest battle they've ever fought against the humans.  Follow the stories of several Covenant soldiers as they fight for victory and the Fragment of Divinity.


_Note: Due to our limited understanding of the Covenant Battle Calendar, we will be using the human calendar instead. If this story is successful, I hope to make a sequel, enjoy!_

**Disclaimer: I do not own halo, etc, I only own this story and any original characters.**

**0437 Hours, August 30, 2552 (Military Calendar)/CPV-Class Destroyer Prevailing Celerity, Epsilon Eridani System's edge**

The Covenant Destroyer _Prevailing Celerity_ was currently in slipspace, along with the other 313 ships of the Fleet of Particular Justice. Minor domo Khas 'Uruunee paced in bay four of the 1500 meter long ship, impatiently. The fleet was heading to the extrapolated site of the City of the Gods, and the vault containing the Fragment of Divinity, possibly the greatest remnant the Forerunners had left them to date, with the exception of the Keyship. Normally, a reclamation fleet of perhaps 15 ships would be sufficient, even with such an important artifact, but word was that a human presence was expected, and that an advance force sent hadn't reported back. So they were sent. Truthfully, Khas hoped that there would be humans there. The upstart sangheili warrior had just earned his 'ee suffix denoting military service with his first battle not a week past. But while he had drawn his weapon, he had not managed a single kill, there not being enough prey. A drawn weapon demanded blood, and Khas was angry he had not gotten any. With so many ships though, Khas hoped that the humans would last long enough for him to see some action. With a slight jolt, the _Prevailing Celerity_ exited slipspace, in close formation with the rest of the fleet.

* * *

A nuclear fireball erupted onscreen, as _Fermion RSO_ self destructed as per the Cole protocol, ensuring no navigation data pertaining to human population centers would fall into Covenant hands.

Klaxons sounded on the bridge of the _Prevailing Celerity_, and shipmaster Vail 'Uruunee checked the holo table showing a 3D representation of the Epsilon Eridani system. With information correlated by the other ships in the fleet, the human presence was confirmed, and appraised. Over 100 human ships gathered in orbit around their target planet.

"_It can't be, the humans have defiled the City of the Gods!_" Vail thought.

Instructions scrolled down on the holo table, orders from the fleet master. A couple ships would blockade the system, and the rest would directly attack the human fleet. While the humans had a surprisingly significant force arrayed here, the fleet of Particular Justice outnumbered them three to one, and their own ships used technology from the gods themselves. Any defense would be futile. The Covenant fleet surged forward. The ship's scanners had time to pick up debris from the _Long Night of Solace_, the super carrier from the advance force; Vail swore to himself that they would avenge their deaths. Then a hundred MAC rounds streaked toward the fleet…followed by twenty noticeably larger and faster rounds fired from a set of orbital stations Vail had previously thought were dry docks.

"Target those stations!" Vail ordered. The five turrets on the _Prevailing Celerity_ launched plasma torpedoes towards the stations, along with the rest of the fleet. There was so much plasma and MAC rounds between the fleets that it looked like a solar flare. The salvos shot pass each other. Three large refit stations maneuvered between the plasma and the human fleet, and started taking the plasma torpedoes. With a dozen hits per station, they had vaporized. However, the rest of the plasma was absorbed by the haze left behind. Not a single torpedo had made it through. Meanwhile, the human MAC rounds started hitting the Covenant fleet. As usual, the ship based rounds merely glanced off most of the Covenant ship energy shielding. It took three or four rounds before the shields of a Covenant ship would collapse. However, the larger rounds from the stations were an entirely different story. Each ship that the MAC rounds hit simply shattered under the tremendous kinetic energy. A round narrowly missed the _Prevailing Celerity_, instead merely brushing it. Even so, the destroyer lost all shields, and received half a dozen hull breaches. Vail ordered the breached sections to be evacuated and vented of atmosphere. The MAC round that almost destroyed the _Prevailing Celerity_ continued on in space, proceeding to gut a CCS battle cruiser from stem to stern. Dozens of ships were simply gone, and dozens more were damaged, venting atmosphere or out of control. But it wasn't over yet, four powerful nuclear mines detonated in the center of the formation, vaporizing at least fifty ships with downed shields. The rest of the fleet continued towards the human positions…with a third of their number burning radioactive hulks or in shattered pieces.

Vail snarled in anger, never had they lost so many ships without inflicting a single casualty on the human forces before in a straight fleet to fleet fight. More instructions flashed through the holo table. Twenty four ships would maneuver around the haze cloud left by the destroyed refit stations to get a clear shot on the stations before they could reload. Through past experience, it was a well known fact that the human starships main weapon, their magnetic accelerator cannon took at least a minute or more to recharge before being able to fire again. The fleet would annihilate them before they would do so. The rest of the fleet flew past the shielding haze and fired on the human fleet. Vail watched with cold satisfaction as his ship's five torpedoes vaporized a human destroyer, the incredibly inferior "counterpart" to his own ship. Eighty five human vessels were destroyed in that barrage. However, Vail's elation evaporated when the deadly super MAC gun stations fired again, obliterating eighteen ships from the group sent after them. The remaining six ships hastily got into position and fired their shots…a second before another salvo took them out. Plasma washed over the human orbital stations…vaporizing five. Rushed orders from the flagship super cruiser arrived, ordering the rest of the fleet to drop everything and retreat out of range of those stations. Vail complied, still in shock. Those stations took barely five seconds between shots to fire. When did the humans build such a powerful weapon? In the heat of battle, Vail hadn't noticed the indication screens before, but now he saw that all fourteen of his ship's spirit and phantom class dropships had successfully launched when they were firing on the human fleet. They were now stealthily approaching the planet with hundreds of others via the poles, a blind spot they had exploited in the previous battle in Sigma Octanus IV. Vail wished the ground troops the best of luck; they would be fighting on enemy territory without space support, against fortified enemy positions, as this planet clearly had, scans showing a record number of humans, in the hundreds of millions, inhabiting this world. It turns out this world was important to both sides.

* * *

Khas 'Uruunee sat in the troop bay of a spirit class dropship, eagerly awaiting combat. It looked like there was a significant human space presence, and the battle had been fought to a standstill for now. The spirit, along with hundreds of others descended through the North Pole at a fraction of its maximum speed in order to maintain the element of surprise; an advantage that was not underestimated by the Covenant field masters. But it was ruined in the form of fifteen super MAC rounds, shattering dozens of dropships in their supersonic wake. Ten UNSC ships flew towards the stream of dropships, and fired MAC rounds and archer missiles. A round narrowly missed the dropship Khas was on, instead, destroying the one directly behind his. Hundreds of missiles impacted dropships, wiping out entire battalions in the blink of an eye. A missile detonated half a kilometer from the dropship. The strained voice of the pilot sounded through the troop bays.

"We've lost one of our anti-grav engines! Losing control-Brace for impact!"

Khas grabbed a brace, and held on tight. He didn't want to die before he could fight face to face with his prey. The dropship was dropping through atmosphere quickly, trying to pull up for an emergency landing. As Khas looked out the viewport, he realized they were crash landing instead. The dropship glanced off the side of a mountain and skidded violently down, with Khas's side thankfully up. The Sangheili lost his hold and bounced around his compartment, up and down until he lost consciousness.

* * *

The dropship finally skidded to a stop, at the base of a snowcapped mountain. Those that survived and got out first noticed that they were way off course from their target; the groundside generators powering the orbital guns. Those super MAC guns were ripping the Covenant fleet to shreds, and if not immediately taken care of, victory was not certain. The crash landing had crushed one of the two personnel bay prongs of the dropship, killing over half of the platoon. The survivors were alone, behind enemy lines. Things were grim, and the survivors began checking the bodies for weapons and equipment, as well as seeing if there were any unconscious survivors. There weren't many.

_A good start. Please review and tell me what you think of telling the Battle of Reach in this perspective! You'll get a cookie! If you go the extra mile, you'll get TWO cookies! Stay tuned for the eventual next chapter._


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